Current integrated development environments (IDEs) provide a number of components useful to software developers in a convenient package with similar user interfaces. For example, a typical IDE may provide software applications that facilitate source code editing, compiling, and debugging as an integrated unit. Often times, however, in addition to developing and testing software within the IDE, a software developer may need to obtain performance metrics for a particular piece of software. Such performance metrics may include, for example, execution times, CPU utilization times, memory utilization and data volumes. Many current systems may be configured to generate such performance data. For example, in an SAP NETWEAVER software environment having JAVA applications running on an application server, CA WILY INTROSCOPE AGENT application management software may be deployed to collect performance metrics from the various applications and components thereof, the application server, and the surrounding software environment (e.g., using embedded database or profiler traces or software instrumentation points to monitor performance of a particular application). Performance data may then be sent from the production server to a performance data server that uses CA WILY INTROSCOPE ENTERPRISE MANAGER software to store traceable individual performance metrics in a database that may be accessed via, for example, CA WILY INTROSCOPE WORKSTATION software, or a web-based graphical user interface such as CA WILY WEBVIEW software.
Current IDEs, however, lack the capability to leverage the information contained in such databases. For example, a software developer performing routine maintenance tasks may need to determine whether a particular piece of software he or she has written is negatively or positively impacting performance of a software package that has been deployed in a production system. Similarly, a software developer engaged in developing a new application may need to quickly estimate the likely performance impact of the new software in an existing production system. In order to accomplish these tasks, the software developer may need to expend a significant amount of effort outside of the IDE in order to set up and run complex performance tests, and then access and review individual reports regarding database or profiler traces or instrumentation points embedded in the software. As such, there is an ongoing need for improved performance metric visualization systems and methods.